Millions in line for higher bills with BT and Sky price hikes
Customers across the UK are facing more expensive TV, phone and broadband deals after BT and Sky announced price increases starting spring 2017.
From Sunday 2 April 2017, BT’s basic broadband package will cost an extra £2 a month for existing customers, while those with high-speed Infinity broadband will pay an additional £2.50 a month.
BT Sport, which is currently offered free to TV customers, will now cost an extra £3.50 a month.
In 2015 BT spent £960m to secure the rights to show 42 live Premier League football matches.
The three-year deal, which runs until 2019, cost the telecoms giant around £7.6m a game.
Rival Sky paid out a whopping £4.2bn for the contract to show 126 Premier League matches.
From Wednesday 1 March the broadcaster is set to increase its standard line rental cost from £17.40 to £18.99 a month.
It’ll add an extra £19 a year to bills for landline-only customers.
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BT phone rental will stay frozen at £18.99 a month, but from April the cost of calls is going up by 1p a minute.
John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: “Customers will get a better package and improved service from us this year in exchange for paying a little more.
“Millions will have the chance to upgrade to faster broadband and almost a million will be able to upgrade to enjoy unlimited usage for no extra cost.
“As usual, we’ve taken care of low income customers by freezing the price of BT Basic and capping call costs. We’ve also frozen line rental, which will particularly help customers who only take a traditional phone service from us.”
Regulator Ofcom says customers have a 30-day window to opt out if they are not happy with the changes to their contract.
